Death flight Rio-Paris: Judgment expected for Airbus and Air France

It has been almost 14 years since an Air France plane en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 228 people. After years of legal wrangling, a judgment is now expected in Paris on Monday (1.30 pm) for the airline and the manufacturer Airbus.

Both companies had to answer in a flight accident lawsuit on suspicion of negligent homicide. The companies risk fines of up to 225,000 euros. For the bereaved Bernd Gans from Vaterstetten, Bavaria, who lost his daughter Ines in the crash, a conviction would be “totally unexpected”, he told the dpa.

On June 1, 2009, the Air France plane on flight AF 447 en route from Rio to the French capital ran into a storm and disappeared from the radar screens. The Airbus A330 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. 228 people died. The cause remained unclear for a long time. It was not until May 2011 that the last bodies and the flight data recorder were recovered at a depth of about 4,000 meters.

Airbus was accused of underestimating the consequences of the failure of its speed measurement pitot probes. These were frozen in flight. According to the indictment, Air France did not adequately train and prepare its pilots for an extreme situation such as that of the accident flight.

An expert report had ruled in 2012 that the crew was overwhelmed by the situation following the failure of the pitot probes. In fact, the situation was manageable.

Flight recorder data showed that the pilots had acted incorrectly, particularly to warnings of a stall on the wings – known as ‘stall’ in English pilot jargon. As a result, the jet quickly lost altitude and eventually crashed. However, contrary to expectations, the stall warning was silent when the speed dropped below a certain point, meaning that the aircraft had been out of flight for a long time and had just fallen.

Prosecutors said in their closing argument that it would remain unclear why the pilots acted the way they did. “At the time, Airbus and Air France could reasonably believe that the training and procedures should have been sufficient to handle the situation with the AF 447.” Prosecutors said it was impossible for them to prove the company was at fault. You cannot ask for a conviction. Gans, one of about 500 co-plaintiffs in the trial, called the plea one-sided.

Airbus and Air France, who denied responsibility for the crash, demanded an acquittal. The Airbus defense insisted that it only listen to the law and asked that a “humanly difficult but technically and legally sound decision” be made.

The legal procedure was a big step for the next of kin. Gans also said he was very happy that the process came about in the first place. Because the accident followed years of legal wrangling. In 2019, investigating judges initially dismissed a case. The reasoning at the time: the accident was due to a combination of elements that had never happened before. In 2021, an appeals court sent Airbus and Air France to dock. Regardless of the verdict, Gans said of the trial, “Overall, it was incredibly important.” (sda/dpa)